Board Game Arena

In the settings, I can choose to avoid playing games with those "far from my ranking." However, my ranking is not high, so it still includes 0 ranked players.

My problem is that some of these 0 ranked players seem... sus. One guy has been a member for 3 years, but literally only played 3 games and this is the first time he played this game, and still beat all the rest of us like it was nothing. And I've seen other accounts like that too - almost no activity, but their playing skill seems incredibly high. Are they bots? Are they sockpuppets?

Anyway, best option is just to avoid them - so any specific options to avoid players with 0 rank?

Dayvit78 wrote: ↑16 August 2021, 05:33 One guy has been a member for 3 years, but literally only played 3 games and this is the first time he played this game, and still beat all the rest of us like it was nothing… Are they bots? Are they sockpuppets?

Or are they he a real-life-players (those exist too, apparantly ... I know, I was shocked too) that only once in a while casually plays on BGA?

Real-life-players hypothesis seems the more probable. Anyway, when creating a table you can restrict table access and not allow Beginners (elo = 0 for this game), as long as you are not a beginner yourself for this game.

I'm not so sure they're not bots ... I'm not any kind of computer guy (or jingoist, for that matter), but it seems very apparent in a game like Letter Tycoon, when a player ranked 0 who has "never played this game before, is flagged as being from a non-native-English-speaking country, has a series of digits for a user-name, and yet manages a 7-letter word every single round that I am not playing vs. a human.

I have largely stopped playing Letter Tycoon, just as one example, for this reason.

You could set up your own table and choose who you play with.

Clownpocalypse wrote: ↑01 September 2021, 02:03 I'm not so sure they're not bots ... I'm not any kind of computer guy (or jingoist, for that matter), but it seems very apparent in a game like Letter Tycoon, when a player ranked 0 who has "never played this game before, is flagged as being from a non-native-English-speaking country, has a series of digits for a user-name, and yet manages a 7-letter word every single round that I am not playing vs. a human.

I have largely stopped playing Letter Tycoon, just as one example, for this reason.

to be honest, most of the really good word smiths I've met were either English majors or those that learned English as a second language (as nearly every country that is a "non-native-English-speaking country" seems to do, almost always far better than most Americans learn a 2nd language...) so I'm not sure that's actually a tell...

and "never played this game" ON BGA is not the same as never actually played this game...

but the digits as name and 0 ELO is still sus...

SteveV wrote: ↑01 September 2021, 17:59

Clownpocalypse wrote: ↑01 September 2021, 02:03 I'm not so sure they're not bots ... I'm not any kind of computer guy (or jingoist, for that matter), but it seems very apparent in a game like Letter Tycoon, when a player ranked 0 who has "never played this game before, is flagged as being from a non-native-English-speaking country, has a series of digits for a user-name, and yet manages a 7-letter word every single round that I am not playing vs. a human.

I have largely stopped playing Letter Tycoon, just as one example, for this reason.

to be honest, most of the really good word smiths I've met were either English majors or those that learned English as a second language (as nearly every country that is a "non-native-English-speaking country" seems to do, almost always far better than most Americans learn a 2nd language...) so I'm not sure that's actually a tell...

and "never played this game" ON BGA is not the same as never actually played this game...

but the digits as name and 0 ELO is still sus...

Being a native is not a requirement to be a word game player.
For example, Nigel Richards does not speak French, however he won French Scrabble Championship. He is a one-of-a-kind though.
But there are a bunch of solver users indeed and they are plaguing the scene even now.
That's why I proposed to cancel Arena mode for Letter Tycoon and Hardback.

I am myself not only a native English speaker but also a former English major with 2 Master's degrees. I'm also a published author and professional content writer, technical writer, and editor. I have been academically published on a number of occasions, and I have published a novel that some have said is not too terrible.

My point is not to toot my own horn but to note that, if I find a word to be esoteric in the extreme, it is esoteric in the extreme.

Some of the words these suspected "bots" come up with stretch the idea of believability to the breaking point. They're either bots or they are simply cheating with an online anagram solver.

Clownpocalypse wrote: ↑03 September 2021, 14:33 They're either bots or they are simply cheating with an online anagram solver.

sadly, especially when playing online, there is no rule about doing exactly that...